It Must Be Love
by Tigerlily06
Summary: Clint and Tony have their first fight.


Tony shuffled into the community kitchen and settled onto a stool at the breakfast bar. He smiled when he felt lips brush his cheek in a light kiss and a cup of coffee was pressed into his empty yet restless hands.

"Thanks, Pep," he murmured. He took a sip and sighed.

"You're welcome," Pepper said with a soft smile. "You want something to eat?"

"Maybe some toast," Tony replied. "I'm feeling kinda queasy and I don't know why."

"Okay," she said as she refilled his cup.

"Where's Clint?"

"He and Natasha were sent on a mission by Fury a few days ago," she explained as she went about making them both a simple breakfast. "Don't you remember?"

"I don't even know what day it is," he replied with a slight grimace. Before he and Clint had gotten together, he had been known for losing track of time as he worked in his lab or self-medicated with alcohol, but this current memory lapse kinda scared him. "So, I don't remember."

"It's the 25th, sir," Jarvis helpfully supplied. "You've been asleep for over forty-eight hours. Master Barton and Miss Romanov will be home in a few hours after they've been debriefed."

"Where's Banner?" Tony growled. The only way he would sleep for that long uninterrupted is if he had been drugged. "I'm gonna kill him."

"I don't think the Other Guy would let you," Pepper reminded him. She placed a plate with toast and sliced fruit in front of him. "I know you don't like being sedated it, but you were driving us all crazy."

"And how is that any different from normal?"

"Jarvis had to lock down the suit to keep you from going after them when you heard that they had missed their first check-in," Bruce answered having slipped into the room unnoticed by either Tony or Pepper. "I didn't want to sedate you, but it was either that or have to watch Fury quarantine you to the SHEILD medical bay on the helicarrier."

"Shit," Tony sighed. He scrubbed at his face trying to shake off the lingering effects of the sedative Bruce had used. "I'm not awake enough for this conversation. I'm gonna go take a shower."

Bruce and Pepper watched him shuffle back toward the elevator with one hand firmly grasping his coffee cup and the other running through his sleep rumpled hair.

"He took that better than I thought he would," Bruce admitted. He picked up a piece of toast and bit into it.

"Tony is good with rolling with the punches," Pepper explained. "Just don't be surprised if he bitches about what we did until he's suitably distracted."

"There's not much that Tony does that surprises me anymore."

"I heard that, Banner," Tony said his voice coming over the central intercom.

"Stop eavesdropping, Tony!" Pepper softly commanded.

Tony quietly chuckled as he closed the intercom. He may have been half asleep, but that didn't mean he couldn't mess with his friends' heads.

"Shall I start the shower for you, sir?" Jarvis inquired with a hint of fond exasperation in his tone.

"That would be lovely," Tony replied as he stripped and headed for his ensuite bathroom.

Tony walked out of the bathroom fully occupied with drying off and planning his revenge when he heard a softly drawled, "Well, Christmas has come early. Aren't I a lucky boy?" which caused him to stop in his tracks and drop the towel he was using to dry his hair.

"Jarvis?"

"Master Clint asked me to not say anything since he wanted to surprise you," Jarvis explained.

"Surprise," Clint said from where he was sprawled on Tony's rumpled bed.

"Asshole," Tony muttered. He walked into his closet and grabbed a t-shirt and jeans to put on. "I thought you were stuck getting debriefed."

"Why bother getting dressed when all I'm going to do is undress you?" Clint softly inquired from the doorway having ignored Tony's previous comment.

"What makes you think I would let you?" Tony snarled as he got into Clint's face. He wasn't in the mood to do anything, but be destructive. "I'm extremely pissed off at you!"

"I can tell," Clint said resisting the urge to rest his hands on Tony's shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. He hadn't seen Tony this angry since he discovered that Fury had lied about Coulson's death. "But, you don't have to be. Me and Nat had things completely under control."

"Bullshit! You even had Phil worried."

"Jesus, Tony. I keep telling you to stop hacking into the SHEILD database because you're not going to like a lot of what you find there," Clint countered.

"No shit, Sherlock, but I can't trust Fury to tell me if my lover is going to come home or not, so I snoop."

"We missed our first check-in, but we had a back up plan in place for such a contingency."

"Well, that's fine and dandy," Tony snarked. "Keep me in the loop next time and I might not have to be sedate to keep from coming after you!"

"Fury seriously had you sedated?"

"Had Bruce do it."

Clint briefly closed his eyes. "Shit," he breathed. "I'm sorry."

"Apology not accepted," Tony replied and walked out of the room.

"Jarvis?" Clint asked as he flopped down on the bed. He would wait awhile to go after Tony.

"Yes, Master Clint?"

"On a scale of one to ten, how screwed am I?"

"Concerning Master Tony, I'd say an eleven."

"Great," Clint murmured. He flung an arm across his eyes and settled in to think about how he was going to make up with Tony.

Jarvis dimmed the lights when he detected a change in Clint's breathing indicating that the blond had fallen asleep.

Tony was banging around his lab with music blaring at Mach Q levels when Clint found him later in the day. He brought with him a peace offering in the form of pizza from Tony's favorite pizza joint and waited for Jarvis to let him in and turn down the music.

"What the fuck, Jarvis?" he growled. "I told you I didn't want to be disturbed."

"I asked him to turn it down, Tony," Clint said as he briefly surveyed the amount of destruction that had been wrought in the room before setting the pizza box on the work bench. "We need to talk."

"Yeah," Tony agreed. He opened the box and pulled out a slice. He had had time to think and was ready to talk with Clint like the adult that he was suppose to be. "When I get scared, I do stupid things."

"I know," Clint replied. He cleaned off a spot on the work bench and hopped up on it so he could be close to Tony and the pizza. "But, you've got to trust me to do my job and return home in one piece."

"I do when we're out in the field," Tony explained. "I can see you and know you're safe because we have your back. It's when I can't see you and know that you're in a dangerous situation that the trust disappears and the fear swallows me whole. I've lost too many people, and I don't think I would survive if I lost you."

Clint reached out and pulled Tony toward him resting his forehead on Tony's. "You scare me when you say things like that."

"I scare me when I say things like that," Tony admitted.

"So where do we go from here?"

"I don't know."

"Okay," Clint breathed still feeling like he was walking on eggshells. "If I apologize again, will it be accepted?"

Tony gave Clint a warm smile. He stepped away and reached for another slice of pizza. "Yes, with the understanding that I'm not going to let you out of my sight for awhile."

"I can live with that."

"Good."

"You want some help cleaning this place up?" Clint asked hopping off the work bench.

"It can wait," Tony said.

"Oh?"

"It's movie night and I have the perfect one to share with you." Tony picked up the pizza box and headed for the door of the lab.

"This I can't wait to see," Clint remarked with a sly grin as he followed Tony from the lab.


End file.
